Alistair Darling: I was wrong on recession

The chancellor, Alistair Darling, has admitted that he and his Treasury officials got it wrong over the length and severity of the recession and that he will be forced to tear up his economic predictions.

He will slash his growth forecast in the budget and warn that there will be no economic recovery until the end of the year, dashing hopes that last week's G20 summit will be followed by an early upturn. "It's worse than we thought," Darling said this weekend.

His admission comes as an opinion poll for The Sunday Times shows that Labour has enjoyed a "bounce" from the G20 summit. Support is up by three points to 34%, with the Conservatives unchanged on 41%. The Tory lead is down to seven…

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